The Consumer Council is delighted to see the passage of the Competition Bill and the Residential Properties (First-hand Sales) Bill in the Legislative Council, and hopes to see the early enactment of Trade Descriptions (Unfair Trade Practices) (Amendment) Bill, all of which are consumer protection legislations long advocated by the Council.
The Competition Ordinance marks a significant milestone for the healthy growth of the market with consumers benefitted from the resulting lower prices and increased choices of higher quality goods and services.
The Residential Properties (First-hand Sales) Ordinance protects prospective buyers through a legal framework which regulates undesirable trade practices in sales of residential properties.
The Trade Descriptions (Unfair Trade Practices) (Amendment) Bill prohibits unfair trade practices in sales of goods and services, which have been promoted by the Council since 2008. The Bill, if passed, will extend its coverage from sales of goods to service provisions, and establish a compliance-based enforcement mechanism with the objectives of encouraging compliance and facilitating quicker settlement.
"In the past months, there have been substantial achievements in the enactment of legislation in protecting consumer interests," said Mr. Ambrose Ho, Vice-Chairman of the Consumer Council, "We will continue our efforts to support appropriate legislative proposals and mechanisms to promote consumer rights."
The Council also released the Report on Unfair Terms in Standard Form Consumer Contract earlier this year, urging the business sector to adopt the fair terms in standard form consumer contracts and the implementation of a cooling-off period to safeguard consumer rights. The suggestions attracted positive responses from the trade and the community.
Phenomenal Growth in Complaints
Related to Group purchase
In reviewing Council's work in the first half of 2012, Mr. Ho noted the slight increase in total complaint cases, and was highly concerned with the unabated increase in complaints of online group purchase.
The complaints in the first half of this year registered a total number of 13,900 cases, a slight increase of 5% as compared with 13,279 cases reported in the same time last year.
Telecommunication services (3,261 cases) remained the top category of complaints, but it was on a downward trend - a drop of 6% from the 3,471 cases for the corresponding period last year.
The category with notable increase in consumer complaints was food and entertainment services. The number of cases increased 3 times from 436 cases in the first six months of last year, to 1,925 cases in the first half of this year. About 70% of the cases were related to dining coupons purchased through an online group purchase portal that closed down earlier this year.
Consumer dissatisfaction on the purchase of goods and services through online group purchase continued to rise. The overall figure of complaints related to online group purchase was alarming, from 56 cases of the first half of last year, to 2,149 cases in the same period of time this year, an increase of 38 times. About 85% of the cases concerned the trader's failure to deliver the goods or services to the consumers, including the dining coupon mentioned above. Areas online group purchase of complaint also included restaurants, beauty services, clothes and apparel and even medical services.
Online group purchase also accounted for the rise in complaints in beauty services, which went up 33% to 497 cases in the first 6 months this year - from 375 cases in the same period last year. Among those cases, 154 cases involved coupons bought from group purchase, in which 88 cases (58%) concerned with expired coupons.
In view of the growing popularity in online group purchase, Mr. Ambrose Ho reminded consumers to be aware of the potential risks when shopping via internet. "They should pay attention to the so-called price-slashing products and services, as well as their terms and conditions of sale, in order to avoid unnecessary monetary loss," said Mr. Ho.
Categories with Notable Decrease in Complaints
There was a notable decrease of complaints in categories such as recreation/health club (-61%), properties sales (-45%), ginseng and other dry seafoods (-34%), photographic equipment (-27%) and baby products (including baby formula) (-24%).
Last August, the Council named 2 audio-video shops which had engaged in undesirable sales practices targeted at tourists. As a result, there was also a welcomed decrease in complaints from Mainland tourists - from 847 cases in the first six months of last year to 695 cases in the same period this year.
Way Forward:
Competition Ordinance
The Council will continue its effort in educating the public as well as the industry, in particular the SME, to have clear and accurate understanding of the Competition Ordinance, by stepping up communication with District Councils, organising seminars for trade associations and assisting teachers' training for Education Bureau on the topic of Competition Law in Hong Kong.
Residential Properties (First-hand Sales) Ordinance
Welcoming the law which provides a long overdue regulatory mechanism for potential residential property buyers and a standardized definition of saleable area for calculating the unit price of first-hand properties, the Council will spare no effort to promote the use of saleable area in a hope of general adoption in the properties sales market.
For issues such as the adequacy of penalty, investigation power of the enforcement authority and the forfeiture rate, remain subjects of public concern, the Council hopes that the Government would set a time schedule for review of the legislation, to ensure its effectiveness in protecting buyers of residential properties.
Standard Form Consumer Contracts
The Council will continue to scrutinize the use of unfair terms in the market and encourage the business to use standard form contracts under which consumers are fairly treated.
Council's Initiatives on Web Accessibility
The Council is committed to serving the community as a whole, including people with disabilities. To meet for the needs of the visually impaired, the Council's website has now made specific enhancement provisions and supportive measures for the group. They include alternative text for graphs and text-only PDF files downloadable, support to the use of screen reading software, which enable the visual impaired to read all contents shown on the screen.
The Council will work hand in hand with different sectors of the community to promote digital inclusion, and to improve the general accessibility of website for people with disabilities.